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Guest opinion

Why are Republicans so obsessed with their Keystone pipe dream? For 35 jobs?

The 114th Congress is officially underway, and in a move that speaks
volumes about the Republican leadership’s agenda, the first order of
business in the House and Senate is rubber-stamping the Keystone XL pipeline.
The GOP is doing a big favor for Canadian oil interests by trampling
the long-established process for making these important environmental
decisions. In return, Americans get sharply increased risks to our
climate and water quality.

Republican leaders are claiming – in the same hair-on-fire mode we’ve
seen for years now – that Keystone will create a fantastic number of
jobs that no independent analysis supports.
They’ve never accepted that the burden of proof is on them to establish
the need for this polluting, environmentally risky project. Instead,
oil-hungry Republicans have insisted that everyone take their economic
claims at face value and have accused environmentally responsible
skeptics of not getting with the program.

Building a pipeline that cuts clear across the country so a Canadian
corporation can export dirty tar sands to the highest bidder is not in
our national interest. We have an established process for approving
these projects. That process has not yet concluded, so Republicans are trying to circumvent it. The question is why.

The real answer can’t just be “jobs”. The State Department has found
that constructing the pipeline would generate fewer than 200,000 jobs a
year – and only 35 permanent American jobs once construction is
finished. TransCanada’s CEO has admitted that once the pipeline is
built, it would create “about 50” jobs.

Is that what all the Keystone fuss is about? Thirty-five or 50 jobs?

Under President Obama’s leadership, without Keystone or any other
reckless Republican proposals to expand drilling off our coasts or on
our prized public lands, this country added 321,000 jobs in November
and 2.6m jobs in 2014. We could add many more by hiring Americans to
rebuild the roads and bridges that make this country run. Instead
Republicans are chasing pipe dreams.

Their urgency can’t be explained by some fiery passion for the rule of law. There is, even today, no legally approved route for Keystone to pass through Nebraska. The planned route violates treaties with tribal governments staunchly opposed to the pipeline.
In all the time Republicans spend claiming to speak for the public
interest, they still haven’t found a few minutes to speak to tribal
leaders who highlight the project’s risks to environmental quality,
property and cultural heritage.

Any case that anyone could make for Keystone – Republican or Democrat
– certainly wouldn’t feature environmental quality or public health.
The heightened risk of pipeline ruptures is as much a concern for people
as for the environment. The pipeline’s proposed route crosses the
Ogallala aquifer, which provides drinking water to no fewer than eight
states. If the oil finds its way into those waters, the heavy tar sands
bitumen will create a submerged disaster requiring a cleanup effort far
above and beyond conventional responses.

For the people who live anywhere near the affected area, Keystone is
more than a political issue in Washington – it’s a threat to the water
they drink, the water in which they bathe, and the water upon which
their crops (and yours) depend.

You wouldn’t know any of this to hear Republicans tell it. They
believe in Keystone so single-mindedly that they aren’t even giving
their own newly elected colleagues a chance to weigh in. This Congress
includes 58 new members who have not debated this issue, nor been to a
single hearing on pipeline safety or had a chance to offer their own
ideas or amendments. Given the low price of gasoline and the rapidly
changing face of our global energy markets, one would think a new
Congress might have a few things to say about such a precedent-setting
decision.

The White House said on Tuesday that “the president wouldn’t sign”
the current Republican legislation. He is right. GOP officials
shouldn’t be able to railroad through legislation based on bad numbers,
bad science and bad politics.

What Democrats need to do now is stick together and give the
president a veto-proof Keystone “no” vote on the floor. Years of
statement-making and maneuvering are about to come to a head. The vote
total is the only statement anyone’s going to listen to from now on.
It’s time to stand firm.

Keystone cheerleaders have been desperate for years now to approve a
project that would make a small handful of already very wealthy
Canadians even wealthier and trample the rights of American pipeline
opponents who live along the proposed route, to say nothing of posing
serious climate and water-quality risks.

The question many of us keep asking is, “What’s the hurry?”

Rather than giving a straight answer, Republicans have decided to jam
the pipeline down our throats, declare some kind of victory and call it
a day. It’s not how decisions of this magnitude should be made – not in
this or any Congress.

TucsonSentinel.com publishes analysis and commentary from a variety of community members, experts, and interest groups as a catalyst for a healthy civic conversation; we welcome your comments. As an organization, we don't endorse candidates or back specific legislation. All opinions are those of the individual authors.

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